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December 17, 2009

The Pros and Cons of Toiling Away in Your Own At-Home Sweatshop

So this New York Times story has nothing to do with lawyers, except we thought it interesting that the writer chose to compare associates to the well-paid/overworked entrepreneurs on Etsy, that Web site where the arts-and-crafts inclined hawk their toilet paper cozies. (A brief aside: That was the first absurd tchotchke to come to mind so we went with it -- but we were quite pleased to discover, with just one Google, that even the stuff we spout off the top of our head turns out to be incredibly spot-on.)

Ms. Gibran, who is in her 30s, had been selling her hand-knit scarves and accessories on the site for less than a year when she decided last November to quit her day job at a copy center in Atlanta. Thirteen months later, she would seem to be living the Etsy dream: running a one-woman knitwear operation, Yokoo, from her home and earning more than $140,000 a year, more than many law associates.

Jealous? How could you not be? Her hobby is her job. But consider this before you quit your day job: at the pace she’s working, she might as well be a law associate.

Unfortunately, though we loved the pose in the photo the NYT chose to run of Ms. Gibran, we were disappointed the paper didn't actually quote any lawyers-turned-arts&crafts moguls. If you're out there, email us. Maybe we'll write about you.